Green without Green

I recently re-read Ken Stewart's What Is Process Black and Green All Over? Your MPS Message Better Be! post over at MPS insights and while I would love to believe he is spot on I can not help but feel that he is not. While I pride myself as being an employee here at Expert Laser Services which is very much a green MPS provider, to take some of the assumptions of this post as actual possibilities seems more akin to that of a pipe dream than anything else, at least at this point in time.

Part of Kens post reads:

"If the enterprise generally leads the SMB market in business trends, get ready for your customers to begin requiring line items be included in proposals offering how your offerings will reduce their carbon footprint or impact their carbon footprint."

Emphasis mine.

Please take notice of the text in black italics...

You would think that in this day and age where "going-green" has become so popular both due to the fact that its trendy yet also seemingly important enough in the minds of so many that this prediction would be true. However, do you honestly think that if said company requested the above information that said company would sign a contract with the green MPS provider if there was a less green MPS option with another provider who offered greater cost savings than the greener company?

In a perfect world maybe, but lets face it, this is not that world. As much as I would love to see companies go for the green plan, I would bet that many will not. The simple fact remains, the only green that really matters in the corporate world is cold hard cash. Sure if an MPS provider offers a plan with greater savings and it happens to be green then great, looks good on the press release.

Here in the real world, places like Guiyu China exemplify greed masked by the supposed nobility of being earth friendly which all to often is merely an elaborate and well played production of green washing used to make a corporate entity appear green, when in fact said corporations true colors more than likely resemble those of blood and oil.

Seem a little grim? Well it is. While not all companies are fiends in that respect it would be silly to think that even the majority of the best companies out there would opt for the greener option if it was the more expensive of several other possible MPS plans.

The truth may be hard to swallow but facing it and digesting it is the only way to utilize truth as a tool to make things better than they are or rather better than the reality behind the veil.

If we as a race are ever truly going to "go green" it will be when the majority chooses to sacrifice dollars for the greater good of the earth. Until then, going green will remain in the realm of propaganda and lies.